As global awareness grows around the Congo and the silence is finally being broken on the current and historic exploitation of Black people in the heart of Africa, a myriad of Western based “prescriptions” are being proffered. Most of these prescriptions are devoid of social, political, economic and historical context and are marked by remarkable omissions. The conflict mineral approach or efforts emanating from the United States and Europe are no exception to this symptomatic approach which serves more to perpetuate the root causes of Congo’s challenges than to resolve them.
Tags:
Africom,
AngloGold Ashanti,
Anvil Mining,
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen,
Banro,
Blattner Elwyn Group,
Bodia Macharia,
Canadian Bill C-300,
Carter Center,
cassiterite,
CNDP,
coltan,
conflict minerals,
Congo,
counterinsurgency,
Eagle Wings/Trinitech,
FDLR,
First Quantum,
FreePort McMoRan,
Group of Experts,
International Court of Justice,
Joseph Mobutu,
Kagame regime,
Kambale Musavuli,
Kemet,
Kivu provinces,
Laurent Nkunda,
Lundin,
Museveni,
Obama administration,
OM Group,
Patrice Lumumba,
Paul Kagame,
Rwanda,
Southern Africa Resource Watch,
Traxys,
tungsten,
Uganda
One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated 10 million Congolese resulted in the end of King Leopold II of Belgium’s rule in the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue, where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Tags:
Africans,
Antonio Guterres,
automobile,
Black people,
Cabot Corp.,
cell phones,
Charity,
cobalt,
coltan,
Congo,
Congo Week,
Congolese holocaust,
copper,
corporate interests,
diamonds,
Eagle Wings,
electronics,
foreign governments,
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki,
Frantz Fanon,
FreePort McMoRan,
Friends of Congo,
geo-strategic battles,
geo-strategic minerals,
gold,
humanitarian industry,
Japan,
justice,
Kambale Musavuli,
Kemet Electronics,
King Leopold II,
Kwame Nkrumah,
local elites,
media caricatures,
military,
misrepresentation of Africans,
multi-lateral institutions,
multi-national corporations,
natural resources,
New Zealand,
OM Group,
poverty,
Rwanda,
technology,
the Congressional Budget Office,
the devaluation of Black lives,
the Financial Times,
the humanitarian industry,
the mainstream media,
the pilfering of Congo’s wealth,
the United States,
tin,
tungsten,
U.S. aerospace,
U.S. business interest,
U.S. corporate foreign policy interests,
Uganda,
Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland,
uranium,
Western economic and military dominance,
World War II,
“Challenge of the Congo”,
“Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo”
Kambale Musavuli, national spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, in this interview by POCC Minister of Information JR, challenges the people of the U.S. and President Obama to stop the resource wars in the Congo that have killed 6 million people, half of them children, for minerals like the coltan that powers our cell phones and almost everything electronic.
Tags:
Africa and the World,
Black Dot Café,
Blackberry,
cell phones,
coltan,
Congo,
Congo Independence Day,
Flashpoints,
Friends of the Congo,
Kambale Musavuli,
KPFA,
POCC Minister of Information JR,
President Obama,
Rwanda,
Uganda
Now while all these militias, rebel groups and armies have been causing horrific wars at great cost to human lives in central Africa, so-called developed countries have been enjoying a lifestyle that is sustained in large part by the resources that come from Africa. The DRC supplies the world’s diamonds, coltan, tantalite, oil and so forth.
Tags:
Carolyn Edson,
coltan,
diamonds,
Enough!,
genocide,
Joseph Kony,
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
oil,
Operation Lightning Thunder I,
Operation Lightning Thunder II,
President Yoweri Museveni,
tantalite,
the Democratic Republic of Congo,
the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF),
the Ugandan government,
the United States,
Uganda
We now know where a lot of coltan and cassiterite stolen from Congo go, in the end. They go to Ghana and other parts of Africa as toxic electronic waste, often disguised as charity: European and North American “contributions” of worn-out, broken, no longer fashionable tech garbage.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
cassiterite,
coltan,
conflict minerals,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Greenpeace,
North Kivu Province,
President Barack Obama,
Rwanda,
Rwandan President Paul Kagame,
toxic electronic waste,
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM),
U.S. Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward
Cobalt is essential to our military industries’ ability to manufacture the modern weapons of war. So, the Congo War, a.k.a. the African holocaust, is a war for the sake of war itself.
Tags:
African holocaust,
African proxy armies,
African World War,
Ann Garrison,
Barack Obama,
Blue Angels,
cobalt,
coltan,
Congo,
Congo War,
Congolese Army (FARDC),
Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP),
Forces Democratique de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR),
Katanga Copper Belt,
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
Patrice Lumumba,
President Patrice Emery Lumumba,
Robert Gates,
Rwanda,
Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF),
U.N. peacekeepers (MONUC),
Uganda,
Ugandan army (UPDF)
What makes this conflict particularly sickening is the role of U.S. and European corporations, together with Rwanda and Uganda, in the plunder of DRC’s resources. This is a war about self-interest and greed.
Tags:
Amnesty International,
coltan,
Committee on International Relations,
Congo,
Cynthia McKinney,
DARA Great Lakes Industry,
Democratic Republic of Congo,
DRC,
Eagles Wing Resources,
genocide,
House of Representatives,
Human Rights Watch,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
International Rescue Committee,
Madam Safiatou Ba-N'Daw,
Mobutu,
President Kagame of Rwanda,
President Museveni of Uganda,
President Patrice Lumumba,
Robert Raun,
Rwanda,
SmartWood,
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Righ,
U.N. Secretary General,
U.S. Special Forces,
Uganda,
UNICEF,
World Food Program
Following “Break the Silence” Congo Week, Kambale Musavuli urges the global community, and African-Americans in particular, to revitalize international attention on the Congo as a means of shedding light on the ongoing conflict and harnessing the potential for strong advocacy relationships.
Tags:
"Break the Silence" Congo Week,
cobalt,
coltan,
Congo,
copper,
Cynthia McKinney,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
DRC,
eastern Congo,
FreePort McMoRan,
Friends of the Congo,
George Foreman,
gorillas,
Heart of Darkness,
Joseph Conrad,
Kambale Musavuli,
King Leopold II,
Muhammad Ali,
Pambazuka,
Patrice Lumumba,
Rumble in the Jungle,
Rwanda,
tin,
Tom Tancredo,
Uganda,
Zaire
Produced by the Pulitzer Center, “Congo’s Bloody Coltan” is a quick glimpse at coltan’s role in Congo’s civil war. It was featured on “Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria” in the Fall of 2006. For photographs, resources and additional reporting by Mvemba Phezo Dizolele on the DRC visit
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=17.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the green heart of Africa. The country has the second largest rainforest in the world. It is resource rich but plagued with humanitarian crises resulting from the plundering of the DRC’s mineral resources are severe.
Tags:
Ann Garrison,
bauxite,
Breaking the Silence on the Congo Week,
cadmium,
cassiterite,
child labor,
child soldiers,
coal,
cobalt,
coltan,
conflict diamonds,
Congo Friends,
consumer electronics,
copper,
De Beers,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
diamond,
diamond mines,
Dustin Blitchok,
Friends of the Congo,
germanium,
gold,
human rights,
industrial and gem diamonds,
International Rescue Committee,
iron ore,
Katanga Province,
manganese,
Mbjui Mayi,
mineral resources,
niobium,
radium,
rainforest,
Rwanda Metals,
safe drinking water,
Second Congo War,
Shinkolobwe uranium mine,
silver,
tantalum,
timber,
tin,
UNICEF,
uranium,
zinc
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